Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane highway
Only 41 per cent of the upgrading work of the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway to four lanes has been completed till November 30, says a recent Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) report. The deadline for the project is December 2014. According to the monthly IMED report, the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project has progressed only 41 per cent in the past eight years. According to the Roads and Highway division, the project was undertaken in 2006, but its implementation started in 2011. Besides, it took four years to finalise the tender process.
It was initially scheduled to be completed by December 2012. However, the project’s duration was extended twice and the present deadline is December 2014. The expenditure has also increased to Tk. 3,190.29 crore, from the preliminary estimate of Tk. 2,168.38 crore in 2006, sources informed.
IMED sources said there has been practically no physical progress of the project in the past four months, due to political turmoil and continuous blockade programmes. Besides, the sources, added, in November, only Tk. 4 core was disbursed for the project, which was just enough to pay the monthly salary of the personnel associated with the project.
According to the IMED report, the implementing agency could spend around Tk. 1,213.04 crore (41 per cent of the total estimated cost) in the past seven years, and only Tk. 91.08 crore till November this fiscal year.
Last year, the communications ministry decided to speed up implementation of the rest of the work on the vital Dhaka-Chittagong Highway widening project. It expected to complete the 193-km thoroughfare within two years. To facilitate work, the government appointed a consultant, Md Rafiul Islam, for three months last year, tasking him with identifying the obstacles to the project. It is learnt that Tk. 4.5 lakh was decided as his consultancy fee and Tk. 4 lakh to cover his visits and for preparing the report.
The consultant’s report states that the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane highway project faced stumbling blocks from the outset, in procuring soil, due to the government’s bar on procuring soil from agriculture land. The construction firms later managed to extract earth from the nearby riverbed, from the sea shore, and the supposed dead hills.
The government attached priority to the project to reduce constraints, accidents, and increase road transport efficiency, by upgrading of the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway (Daudkandi-Chittagong section), from two lanes to four lanes.
The government revived the four-lane project on a priority basis and signed deals with six construction firms on January 10, 2010. The road division signed 10 agreements for construction of roads, and three for construction of bridges and over-passes.
The construction work was divided into 10 parts, of which, seven went to Sino-Hydro Corporation Limited, a Chinese firm. The progress of the work allotted to Sino-Hydro Corporation is very slow, as it has been able to complete only 10 to 17 per cent of its share of work till the end of May. The findings also show that the firm has failed to provide necessary manpower, machinery and construction equipment.
The consultant, Rafiul Islam, pointed out that though Sino-Hydro Corporation had agreed to provide dump trucks, excavators, motor graders, bulldozers, vibrating rollers, asphalt mixing plants, asphalt pavers, steel wheel rollers, pneumatic tyre rollers, flat trailers, air compressors, vibrators and diesel generators, among other equipment, it has not supplied any of those, compromising the progress of the project.
He said the Chinese firm did not have sufficient number of highway engineers, structural engineers, material engineers, site engineers, and contract managers, to check the quality of the project.
According to IMED officials, Sino-Hydro Corporation had accepted the contract at lower costs than the originally estimated project spending. They alleged the company has realised it cannot profit from the project and thus lost interest in it. The officials also said that the minister, who had allegedly favoured the firm in getting the contract, was not in power anymore.
The IMED report says that the government has appointed 11 project directors (PD) to implement the project. It also says that frequent changes of PDs have also delayed the project. As per rules, recommendation by a high-level government committee, headed by the planning minister, is mandatory to change a PD, but the implementing agency did not follow the procedure.
-With The Independent input
